[478] Handbuch der Kunstgeschichte.
[479] History of Christian Art, vol. i, p. 47.
[480] In an ivory diptych, probably of the fourth century, which is figured in Marriott’s Testimony of the Catacombs, is a very spirited bas relief of Adam in the garden giving the beasts their names.
[481] Is there any allusion here to Noah as a “preacher of righteousness?”
[482] 1 Pet. iii, 20, 21. The dove is the symbol, says Tertullian, of the Holy Spirit bringing the peace of God after the mystical lustration of the soul in baptism.—De Baptismo, vii.
[483] It is difficult to conceive how such a wide departure from historic truth took place in these representations. It has been suggested that they were copied from some pre-existing type, upon which this form was imposed by the conditions of space in which it was executed. Such a type occurs in the celebrated Apamean medals, of date A. D. 193-211. See [Fig. 67]. It probably commemorated the Deucalion deluge; and the design was apparently modified by the Christian artists to represent the preservation of Noah.
Hostia viva Deo tanquam puer offerar Isaac,
Et mea ligna gerens, sequar almum sub cruce patrem.
[485] E. g., Greg. Nazianz., Orat. 42.